Science Is Getting Closer to Finding a Cure for Paralysis

September 4, 2012, 11:00am

A team of scientists in Switzerland and the United States must be thrilled after an experimental stem cell treatment they developed helped two paralyzed patients regain feeling in their bodies. The small trial involved injecting three patients with 20 million neural stem cells harvested from fetal brain tissue directly into the injured part of their spines between four and eight months after the injuries happened. They also got a dose of immunosuppressive drugs to cut down on the chance of rejection. Sure enough, six months after the treatment, two of the patients who previously had no feeling below their nipples could feel touch and heat as far down as their belly buttons. The third still couldn’t feel anything.

Nevertheless, it’s a big deal. “The fact we’ve seen responses to light touch, heat and electrical impulses so far down in two of the patients is very unexpected,” said Stephen Huhn, one of the researchers. “It’s the first time we’ve seen a signal of some beneficial effect, so we’re moving in the right direction, and towards a proof of concept.”

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This is just the latest in a string of hopeful experiments on paralyzed patients. In China, a similar stem cell procedure is showing progress and even leading some of the researchers behind it to toy around with the word “cure”. (Cure is basically a dirty word in medical research.) Led by the awesomely named Dr. Wise Young, the treatment involves injecting umbilical cord blood-cell transplants into the spinal cord along with lithium treatments to promote the growth of nerve fibers. In an interview with the New York Daily News Young was vague about the specifics but says they’re making solid progress. At the very least, Young says, “Nobody has lost any function.”

The most impressive advance the spinal cord injury research involves a treatment that’s a little bit more aggressive. This idea involves hooking up electrodes to the spine and sending electrical signals that mimic the brain’s own signals. This set up helped a 25-year-old man who is paralyzed from the chest down actually walk on a treadmill with assistance. In the future, doctors hope that they can make portable electric stimulation packs that patients could strap on their backs enabling them to walk around normally.

Although these recent advances are good news, at the end of the day, an actual cure for paralysis is probably years away. And that’s not taking into account the pushback on stem cell research from conservatives. Nevertheless, thanks to teams like Huhn’s we know that the possibility is out there.